What we need the most is the most valuable to us. What the birds need most is a place where they can live and raise their young with the least danger. All birds are surrounded by their natural enemies, which are sure to kill a great many of them, but with the addition of cats, rats and human beings intent upon killing them they seem to have a poor chance of life. Then if we can provide a place or places where these enemies will be less sure to get them and their eggs or young, we shall be paying the debt we owe in the greatest measure possible. Can we provide any such safe retreats? I think we can. Your own door yard may be made such a retreat. Banish all cats and dogs who love bird flesh. See to it that stray cats and dogs are in danger of their lives on your lawn or in your yard. Let every boy know that the birds on your premises must not be disturbed in any way. Instead of carefully trimming out all the tangles of the vines and branches remember that such places are where the birds delight to build their nests. Put up bird boxes and houses for the martins, wrens, swallows and bluebirds and keep the English sparrows out of them. Make it easy for the birds while they are feeding their young. In short, give the birds which prefer your yard a little attention and you will soon be on friendly terms with them and they will many times repay any trouble you may put yourself to for their sakes. Any study of the birds is not wasted time, but time profitably spent. Lynds Jones. A FEW OF THE BIRD FAMILY. The old bob white, and chipbird; The flicker and chee-wink, And little hopty-skip bird Along the river brink. The blackbird and snowbird, The chicken-hawk and crane; The glossy old black crow-bird, And buzzard, down the lane. The yellowbird and redbird, The tom-tit and the cat; The thrush and that redhead bird The rest's all pickin' at! The jay-bird and the bluebird, The sap-suck and the wren-- The cockadoodle-doo bird, And our old settin' hen! James Whitcomb Riley. [Illustration: PLYMOUTH ROCK FLOCK. CHICAGO: A. W. MUMFORD PUBLISHER.] THE DOMESTIC FOWL. The writers of antiquity used the term fowl to include all the members of the bird tribe and, in some cases, the young of other animals. Feathered creatures, no matter what their habits, were not called birds, neither were they separated into classes other than the "Fowls of the Air," "Fowls of the Sea," "Fowls of the Earth," and similar descriptive divisions.